Reviews

"A highly orginal orchestra using a variety of musical instruments. This is pure enjoyable improvisation from a group that probably could manage to make good sound of almost all items they find, it's probably just the imagination that sets the boundary. A very recommendable piece of improvisation."

-Joost Hegle,
Editor of Nephilius webzine on Olestra Vs. Viagra Vol. 1 CD

Reviews of GTO sample library at BigFishAudio.com

Electronic Musician 4.5 out of 5 Zack Price

What are you doing with all the junk that you and society in general have generated? Gregory John Wildes is turning civilization's discarded items into musical instruments. Wildes took abandoned automobile gas tanks, cleaned them out, and turned them into resonator cavities for a variety of homemade percussion, string, and wind instruments.

Wildes then sampled individual notes of some instruments and created loops performed on all instruments. The result is Gas Tank Orchestra ($99.95), a combination audio and WAV two-CD set. All of the WAV files have been "acidized" so that they can be readily used in Sonic Foundry's Acid. (However, there is no documentaion for loop tempos.)

Precious Metals
The sounds are organized into familiar instrumental categories, but the sounds themselves evoke only a vague sense of their namesake. For example, at no time would you mistake any of the 42 Drum Spots for realistic bass drums, snare drums, or tom-toms. The disc's 55 Drum Lines offer rhythmic patterns that bear little resemblance to conventional drum loops. Nonetheless, that is part of charm of this collection. The Drum, Kalimba, Bass, Harp, and Zither samples all sound clanky, metallic, and off-kilter. This shouldn't be surprising *the resonators and vibrations are metallic. Furthermore, because the instruments are homemade, the tuning isnÕt always perfect. But again, thatÕs part of their appeal.

The Wind instruments, by virtue of their design, don't have that metallic sound. Even so, their homemade construction imbues them with a rough, detuned quality that their conventional counterparts can't begin to convey.

Wildes includes photos of the instruments he has constructed JPEG-format files on the WAV CD-ROM. In some cases, you get a straightforward picture of an instrument. Unfortunately, many of the pictures treat the instruments as if they were merely incidental to the overall composition of the photograph. That is to be expected, given that Wildes begins describing the instruments and samples only about halfway into the accompanying text on the inside CD cover jacket. The first half of the text contains a story about an incident that he experienced while bicycle riding and his philosophy of "Fundamental Repsycheling."

Even so, it is possible to piece together the look and sound of an instrument by its name and photograph. For instance, Trombone-Hose, Trumpet-Hose, and Sax-Hose all have a mouthpiece connected to a rubber hose that is connected to a gas tank. It looks and sounds as if the pitch is controlled by the embouchure. Flute looks as though it was created from PVC pipe. The Bamboo-Clarinet has a clarinet reed mouthpiece attached to the end of a bamboo flute, which is attached to a rubber hose that is connected to a gas-tank resonator at the other end. This is physical modeling gone haywire, folks!

Repsychedelic
Wildes suggests that you begin by listening to the entire CD to find the inspiration for using the sounds. I tried that approach, but quickly tired of simply listening to the sounds. I opened up Sonic Foundry's Acid to audition sounds and began to piece together compositions when the inspiration struck me. Granted, that's a more random approach, but that's how I work in Acid anyway. However, when I imported the samples into Tascam GigaStudio and Sonic Solutions Orion Pro, I focused on the Notes and Spots.

Gas Tank Orchestra is loaded with unusual sounds that you might not use every day. Nevertheless, you'd be surprised at the number of times you will want to use them. Hip-Hop artists should appreciate the unusual sounds, wide variety of drum loops and drum hits, and some of the more unusual bass lines. Other artists may find that the different instrumental loops and notes add just the right spice to more conventional arrangements. It's also possible to create entire pieces of music using nothing but the loops and hits contained in this collection. Wildes includes several excellent examples in Acid song format of arrangements that he made using nothing but these sounds. I was also able to quickly create an arrangement in Acid using just these sounds. In short, this collection is a lot of fun. That's part of its charm.

Interface Magazine Contents 9.5 Originality 8.5 Sound quality 8.5 Price/Performance 9

Stranger things didn't happen until this title arrived at my desk. The basic philosophy of this CD is that all instruments are produced by gas tanks. Imagine yourself playing some cool drums or just adding the mouthpiece of a saxophone to a gas tank. Maybe even more different and impressive is the didgeridoo that is recorded through a gas tank. The set is completely packed with loops, which are ACID prepared, but the purists among us, who rather play their own melodies, will get their chance with the individual sounds that are available. To get a little perspective, of what kind of tanks are used and how they're molested, there are some images of the different tanks on the second CD along with some other documentation and of course the WAV files.

Maybe this CD is not suitable for everybody, but it's definitely fun to do something different with your music. Even for the crazy idea behind this CD it should receive an award!

Knowledge

GTO may feature sounds made from old bits of junk but the results are very surprising, ranging from very ethnic sounding kalimba loops and Malaysian bells to trash can drum loops. There's also loads of individual hits and effects made from metal bashing! There are some didgeridoos, flutes and bamboo-clarinet plus some weird sounds as well as scale notes on different instruments. There's a large section of lead sax lines which are very nice and some off keys loops and FX. Definitely something different for anyone vaguely interested in ethnic or weird types of ambient music. So all you budding film soundtrack makers should get this in your collection for that avant-garde short film on Channel 1.

SLAMM Magazine Sven-Erik Seaholm

Strange, Big Fish In the Sea of Sounds
SLAMM Magazine 05.02

Whether you're a sampler wielding DJ, an electronica computer Îgeekâ or simply a guy or gal looking to spice up your recordings, sounds is where it's at. A double-edged sword actually, when you factor in the desire for a unique sonic identity. Aside from rolling our own, we're all drawing from the same well of commercially available loop and sample discs or (gasp!) other artists albums. For an example of how this paradigm can go horribly awry, try to count how many 80's & 90's recordings incorporated James Brown's "Funky Drummer" loop. Hell, I even used it! Granted, much of the responsibility lies with the individual to create their own spin on things, and it is in this spirit that we nip, tuck, wring and otherwise mangle these sounds through various means in our quest for originality. But this is the Taco Bell generation, dammit! We don't always have time for those kinds of shenanigans, and apparently those folks at Big Fish Audio know it. Enter Groove Dimensions, Gas Tank Orchestra and Noize Loops ($99.95 each), three entirely different, thoroughly creative and totally bizarre collections of loops that all share one common trait: a weird, freaky coolness that can set your stuff apart.

Groove Dimensions is a single audio CD set that sets a new standard for quality, originality and value. LA film score artist Thomas Schobel started by laying down an impressive array of beats, from funky to aggressive to arty, and always with an impeccable sense of "pocket". He then took the inventive approach of "playing along" with a variety of signal processors. This yielded not only fresh and trippy, but ultimately very musical results. Sounds fly around the stereo field with wild abandon after being massaged by flange, distortion, ring modulators and any number of rhythmically synced filters, creating little soundscapes of varying hues, textures and well, grooves.

The over 73 minutes (!) of loops are grouped by track, based upon pattern, style and type of effect used. Each of these tracks is broken down in the well laid-out booklet by tempo, and indexes show each variation and its elements. Where applicable, effects and base key notes are also given. Of course with names like "big-lighter 2" and "hi-fi firey 1", you'll still have to listen through to find what you're looking for, but isn't that half the fun? With a variety that spans Drum n' Bass, 2 Step, Trip Hop, soundtracks and more, there is definitely something for everybody here.

Gas Tank Orchestra takes things in an impossibly different direction: Straight to the junkyard, in a very good way. Performed by the New Orleans-based ensemble of the same name, this is a collection of sounds produced from found items (gas tanks, brake drums, hoses, etc.) which were then struck, bowed, brushed or blown into by this wacky group of musicians. The results are a creepy, creaky and clangy netherworld that lies somewhere between eastern ethnicity and a Tom Waits record. If you've been looking to "global" music collections for new harmonic textures, but feel hemmed in by the stylistically identifiable elements, this may be just what you've been looking for.

This two-disc set (one 66 minute audio CD, the other with the 813 samples in Acid .wav format) is divided by the instruments they (loosely) evoke: Drum, Kalimba, Bass, Harp, Zither, Didgeridoo, Flute, Trombone, Trumpet, Clarinet, Oboe and Sax. While keys are given, tempos are not. This is slightly irritating, given that many of the sounds are loop-based, but those of you with Acid probably won't care much, due to the thoughtful and (value-adding) .wav disc. The vibey ambience of these sounds can round out any project in need of some rustic, artistic credibility.

For those who like it dirty (and you know who you are), Noize Loops is as filthy as they come. Not that friendly, fuzzy kind of analog distortion either. We're talking digitally clipped sh*t that would scare the bejeezus out of Trent Reznor or Marilyn Manson in the right context. The surprisingly wide range of agro beats offered are folded, spindled and mutilated into nearly unrecognizable form, creating a mayhem Atilla the Hun might produce, were he to be crushing a computer keyboard in the 21st century, rather than human skulls in the 5th. Perhaps that's not surprising, given that these guys did the music for video games Quake II & III.
Also a two disc audio/.wav format collection, Noize Loopsâ teeth clenching sounds are divided amongst nearly a hundred categories, grouped by the type of effect applied. The tempos range between 76 and 172 bpm, and are listed next to each loop's entry in the booklet. Again, names like "Speaker Bleed" and "Shrapnel Blasts" may not be the most explanatory, so listening through you must do. Just take a couple of Advil prior, you'll thank me later.

Go forth and revel in your newfound rareness!